Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks

Reviewed by Ellen

Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

memoirs-of-an-imaginary-friend

Ratings Explanation

Language:  All the usual swear words, plus several profanities, and multiple uses of the f-word in one short scene. Also crude language: “screw you”, “quit playing with yourself”, and two co-workers who repeatedly flip each other off.

Violence:  A school bully tries to beat up a smaller boy and frequently taunts him. He follows the boy into his bathroom stall. The bully later comes to his house on Halloween, throws eggs at it and breaks a window with a rock. A man wearing a devil mask tries to rob a convenience store and shoots the clerk; she later dies. One large, hulking (but imaginary) man violently beats up another (imaginary) boy. A woman chases a young boy through a forest. A man pins a woman down in a physical struggle.

Sexual Content:  Max’s parents kiss and cuddle on the couch. A scene where a boy is “shaking his thing.”

Adult Themes:  Max’s parents fight a lot, mostly over how to treat Max and what might be wrong with him. A woman who works at the school abducts Max by luring him into her car.

Synopsis

Max is a young boy suffering from an undiagnosed form of autism, possibly Asperger’s Syndrome. Though he is taunted at school and has no real friends, he takes great comfort in his imaginary friend, Budo, who is always there for him. Though imaginary, Budo is “real” in the sense that Max has created him, and he can do whatever Max has imagined him to do. He can pass through doors (but not walls), he can stand guard in the boys’ bathroom, and he can warn him when the school bully is coming.  As far as imaginary friends go, he has existed a long time, and he knows that it is Max’s dependence on him which keeps him alive. Once Max gets too old to believe in him anymore, Budo will certainly vanish and go the way of all imaginary friends. So it is in his best interest to protect Max and keep that dependence alive. But when Max is kidnapped by Mrs. Patterson from school, only Budo knows where he is, and only Budo can save him, but that will require helping Max become independent–even from Budo.

The interesting thing about this novel is that it is told from the perspective of the imaginary friend, and told with humor, poignancy, and insight. The reader will care about Max and what happens to him, of course, but aside from Max, the reader will care about what will happen to Budo. To think of all the imaginary friends that have ever been, and how they have vanished into oblivion! A silly thought? Maybe. But one that will cross your mind after reading this book.